The Big Ten’s new bowl buzzwords are “diversity” and “freshness.”
Meaning, the league realizes that fans do not want to return to the same parts of the country year after year for bowl trips.
To that end, commissioner Jim Delany on Monday announced new six-year deals (beginning in 2014) that will send Big Ten teams to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego and the Kraft Fight Hunger in San Francisco. The opponents will be from the Pac-12.
“We want to make sure there is freshness,” Delany said. “It’s hard when a team goes to say, Florida, five times in six years, it’s hard to get excited. If you’ve been to the Rose Bowl three years in a row, maybe San Diego and San Francisco aren’t the right places to go in your next bowl trip. There will be some selection order, and it will be heavily influenced by freshness.”
Bowls have traditionally had final say on team selection. Now the league will have the loudest voice.
Delany said he anticipates three tiers of Big Ten bowls, with the Capital One, Outback and Holiday at the top. The Kraft Fight Hunger, Pinstripe and Gator/Music City (splitting visits over a six-year span) will be in the middle.
The third tier games have yet to be announced, but Delany indicated that a game in Detroit remains a possibility.
Twitter @TeddyGreenstein